Crescenta Valley 9-10 softball continues winning in new way

After two days of scheduled games in the Southern California State Championship Division All-Star 9-10 softball tournament, the Crescenta Valley 9-10 All-Stars played none, won one and moved on to Sunday’s winner’s bracket.

Originally scheduled to open play Thursday, the Section 2 champion had its opener pushed back to Friday as the tournament expanded to seven teams. CV showed up to Harvey Field in Jurupa Valley about two hours ahead of its 7:30 p.m. start time Friday and grew antsy as the time drew near and it still awaited its Section 5 opponent to show.

“I’m not seeing the team an hour before the game and they just didn’t show,” Crescenta Valley Coach Mark Bitetti said. “They said they had a number of girls that couldn’t make it, so they didn’t bother showing.”

While Crescenta Valley will certainly take the victory, it’s one of the rare, not-so-happy ones.

“The girls were ready and excited; they wanted to perform,” Bitetti said. “We’re a little down about it actually, we wanted to play.”

CV will practice again Saturday “to try to stay sharp” for Sunday when it faces the winner of the Section 6/7 and Section 4 game, which is scheduled for noon Saturday at Harvey Field.

“Ultimately, it’s going to come down to pitching,” Bitetti said. “Right now, we lose one of our girls, she’s going on vacation. We still have two solid pitchers and a third for relief, if we need.”

Crescenta Valley will look to continue its impressive run and build on its phenomenal play since forming as an all-star team for its first game July 6. It has logged an undefeated 4-0 record, including the forfeit, since then. It’s averaged 11 runs a game on offense and allowed just 3.3 defensively.

“Our hitting has been pretty good, we’re putting the bat on the ball. We were sending [the ball] to the fence, four or five balls,” Bitetti said in reference to his team’s 12-2 win over Canyon Country July 7. “You don’t see that at the 9-10 level.

“We’re doing well, playing solid defense and the pitching has been outstanding.”

CV’s original one-day break in between games since it won the Section 2 title with a 9-4 victory over Canyon Country Tuesday will now stretch to five. Bitetti isn’t too worried about how the break will impact his team, which is gaining confidence by the day.

“I didn’t know how well we would do [this year], but they’re starting to feel good about themselves,” he said, “and they think they can win any game they’re in.”